Mary K. Stillwell - The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser

THE LIFE AND POETRY OF TED KOOSER

2013 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

Acknowledgments for the use of copyrighted material appear on page 229, which constitutes an extension of the copyright page.

Photographs are used with the permission of Ted Kooser, except no. 24 by Megan Bean/Mississippi State University; no. 25 by Eileen Barroso/Columbia University; no. 26, courtesy of Lincoln Public Schools; no. 27 by Matt Valentine; no. 28 by Don Unser; and no. 29 by Jon D. Humiston/University of NebraskaLincoln.

All rights reserved.

Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Friends of the University of Nebraska Press.

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stillwell, Mary K.

The life and poetry of Ted Kooser/
Mary K. Stillwell.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4962-0944-3 (electronic: e-pub)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4962-0945-0 (electronic: e-mobi) 1. Kooser, Ted. 2. Kooser, TedCriticism and interpretation. 3. Poets, American20th centuryBiography. 4. Poets, AmericanNebraskaBiography. 5. Poets laureateUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

PS 3561. O 6 Z 86 2013

811'.54dc23 [B] 2013011893

Set in Lyon by Laura Wellington.

Frontispiece: Ted Kooser in his art studio in Dwight, Nebraska. Photo by Matt Valentine.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For Frank,
for Wil and Anna,
and in memory
of Susan J. Rosowski

Acknowledgments

As an epigraph for his 2004 collection, Delights & Shadows , Ted Kooser chose a line from Emily Dickinsons letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson: The Sailor cannot see the North but knows the Needle can. Dickinson was looking for literary guidance from her friend and mentor; Kooser was reminding his readers of how knowledge of death informs our lives. Dickinsons words also suggest the kind of support and guidance, seen and unseen, that I have received as I turned my interest in Koosers poetry into the book that is before you.

Like that sailor setting forth, I have many to thank for pointing me in the right direction both before and after the announcement of Koosers laureateship. The late Susan J. Rosowski, scholar and editor of Willa Cathers scholarly edition, a careful listener, provided insight, feedback, and an opportunity for financial support by nominating me for a UNL Presidential Fellowship to complete my doctoral study of Nebraska poetry. Although she was too ill to attend graduation, her friendship continued, and I have felt her presence long after her death several months following Koosers appointment.

Early in my college career I had the good fortune to study with Sr. Ernestine and Mike Novak at (then) St. Mary College, who praised my early attempts at writing even when my test scores indicated a future in the sciences. Later William Packard, poet, teacher, and editor of the New York Quarterly , encouraged me to give poetry writing a try in his master class at New York University. He introduced me to the work of Nebraska poet Weldon Kees and those who came after him, including Ted Kooser. Two decades after that first class Packard wrote my recommendation for graduate school. I also owe thanks to Michael Benedikt, who, when he served as poetry editor of the Paris Review , published my early poetry and in this way encouraged my writing.

Happily many of those who nurtured me and influenced my work are alive and well. Writing any long work is at times a lonely task, and yet it cannot be accomplished without support and assistance every step of the way. Thanks to the other members of my doctoral committee: in English, Paul Olson, who suggested that I write a book on Koosers work, and Plains scholar Frances W. Kaye, as well as Nelson Potter, in philosophy, who steered and listened, prompted and were silent in just the right doses. Special thanks go to Susan Naramore Maher, advisor, teacher, and former chair of the English department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, for her encouragement, mentoring, and for including Weather Central on her Plains literature syllabus many years ago.

Librarians compose a special tribe, always helpful and always quick; special thanks to the librarians at Love Library, especially to Amy Heberling, UNL Interlibrary Loan; Denise Matulka, Lincoln Journal Star ; and various staff members at the Ames Public Library, Guttenberg Public Library, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Des Moines Public Library, Marshalltown Public Library, and the Valentine Public Library. I also wish to thank Alan Spohnheimer, Ames Historical Society, and Kathy Svec, Iowa State University, along with Kim Stafford and Paul Merchant, director, William Stafford archives, and Stephen Meats, editor of the Midwest Quarterly . Norton and Edward Mezvinsky, Susan Allen Toth, and Larry H. Christy were helpful in providing a sense of the Ames of Koosers childhood. Iowa State faculty, including Richard Herrnstadt, provided recollections of their colleague Will Jumper, Koosers first mentor.

Various poets and scholars have also provided information or pointed me in its direction; among them are Gregory Fraser, Glenna Luschei, Robert Phillips, Detrich Oostedt, Henry Taylor, Steve Cox, Norbert Krapf, and Don Jones, and, closer to home, Greg Kosmicki, publisher of Backwaters Press, Hilda Raz, Bill Kloefkorn, Todd Robbinson, Roy Scheele, Greg Kuzma, Don Welch, Mark Sanders, Lee Lemon, and Mordicai Marcus, along with auslnder Steve Hahn. A special thanks goes to Danielle Glazner, my plains literature seminar partner, when I was just launching this leg of my journey at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Nebraska Foundation for a fellowship that allowed me to reduce my teaching load for a year, particularly important to a lecturer, and to Joy Ritchie and Deborah Minter, then chair and vice chair of the English department, for lending their support. Thanks, too, to my students who read and shared their insights about Koosers poetry with me over the years.

Fortunate for me, Andrews Hall reverberates with poetry past and present. Not long after I began this book, Ted Kooser dropped by my office on the first floor of Andrews. You know, he began, this was Karl Shapiros office in the 50s, only it was much larger, a suite of offices. Prairie Schooner was located here too. He went on to say that my old upholstered chair in the corner, where students sat when they came to visit, was probably his too, the place where Karl sat to read his mail,... where he sat to read Howl when it came in the mail, and where he announced to Glenna Luchsi, his grad assistant, This will change everything. Being able to work in this environment enriched the text and texture of this project.

Koosers friends have been generous with their time, filling in blanks and providing helpful insights into his life. Among them are Patty Lombardi, Burke Casari, and Mij Laging. Diana Tressler, Koosers first wife, has become a friend as well as a well-spring of information and encouragement. In addition to providing insights into their lives via interviews and e-mails, she generously passed along Koosers early letters that tell the story of their courtship and dreams, and that document her former husbands desire for a life of poetry. Koosers sister, Judith Langmack, has also been helpful in affording a look into the house on West Ninth Street where she and her brother grew up.